John Turturro will receive the John Cassavetes Award while Nanni Moretti is to be presented the Maria & Tommaso Maglione Italian Filmmaker Award at the 38th edition of the Denver Film Festival (DFF), which runs November 4-15. DFF attracts nearly 58,000 filmgoers and is widely recognized as the Rocky Mountain Region’s premier film event. This year’s program boasts more than 250 films, representing 39 countries. The complete lineup of films is available here.
The John Cassavetes Award, established in 1989 in collaboration with his widow Gena Rowlands, is presented annually to an individual who has made a significant contribution to the world of filmmaking and whose work reflects the spirit of the late Cassavetes. The award was first presented to Steven Soderbergh, with recent recipients including Vince Vaughn, Sean Penn, William H. Macy, Kevin Bacon, Tim Robbins, Bill Pullman, J.K. Simmons, Elliott Gould and Judy Greer.
A veteran of more than 60 films, Turturro has given unforgettable performances in such Coen Brothers classics as Barton Fink, Miller’s Crossing and The Big Lebowski (his portrayal of bowler Jesus Quintana ranks among the most hilarious performances in movie history); he has also appeared in nine Spike Lee films, including Do the Right Thing. Most recently, he has been praised for his turn as an egomaniacal actor in Mia Madre, also screening at this year’s Festival-and he has written and directed five features of his own as well, including Passione, a documentary about the music in Naples, and Fading Gigolo,in which he starred opposite Woody Allen.
“As an actor whose body of work ranges from the deadly serious to the comically outrageous, John Turturro has made an indelible mark on modern American cinema,” said DFF director Britta Erickson.
The John Cassavetes Award presentation will take place on Thursday, November 12 at the Sie FilmCenter followed by a One-on-One conversation with John Turturro hosted by Robert Denerstein and an audience Q&A. Tickets for this event are extremely limited and are $20 for general public and $17 for Denver Film Society members.
Turturro also stars in DFF’s special presentation (by invitation only) of Mia Madre, directed by Moretti, recipient of the Maria & Tommaso Maglione Italian Filmmaker Award. The Maria & Tommaso Maglione Italian Filmmaker Award, established in 2012 and funded through the endowment from the Anna & John J. Sie Foundation named for Anna Sie’s parents, recognizes the best in contemporary Italian cinema.
A writer and actor as well as a director, Moretti is one of contemporary Italy’s most celebrated filmmakers. His films have won major awards all over the world for the past four decades, the best known perhaps being The Son’s Room, which received the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in 2001. Moretti was born and still lives in Rome, where he is also the co-owner of a small movie theater.
His latest film, the multilayered Mia Madre, premiered at Cannes in May to almost unanimous acclaim and will be released in U.S. theaters early next year. Along with his own star turn, it features remarkable performances by Margherita Buy and a wonderfully comedic Turturro as a buffoonish American actor in over his head.
